


Take Me Out ...

by Dragonkat



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Baseball Jargon, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 09:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18736414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonkat/pseuds/Dragonkat
Summary: … to the Ball Game.Alternate endings are fun to write. Thank you Endgame for messing up Steve's send-off so badly you’ve inspired me to write fan-fiction at an alarming rate. My feelings about Steve’s end are summed up in the dialogue below:“Why didn’t you stay?”“Because the past is the past.”“Even with a time machine?”“Especially then.”





	Take Me Out ...

**Author's Note:**

> AN: So we can talk about the ending of Endgame and our thoughts about Steve’s sendoff, or we can petition for an alternate ending. Anyone see “I Am Legend”? Anyone else mad at the theatrical ending like I was? Anyone then as happy as I was at the director’s cut alternate ending that came out with the movie? Slightly different situation but still we could be petitioning to request the directors make an alternate ending for the release of the film, rather than just complaining. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot I could complain about in those last 5 minutes of an other wise great film, but that’s exhausting. Instead let’s fan-fiction our hearts out and ask for some alternate endings. 
> 
> Here’s my contribution to the Endgame fix-it fictions. I wanted to write an alternative scene to the one we got. I picture this scene happening in place of the whole moment with Bruce, Sam and Bucky sending Steve off. I still include the dance at the end, but at a different venue and in a different context.
> 
> Stay strong everyone. Fans managed to revive Firefly and Veronica Mars for a movie sendoff. I don’t see why we can’t make some alternate endings happen for the movie release of Endgame in a few months. Probably not feasible but it can’t hurt to try.

Steve wiped at the mustard clinging to the corner of his mouth, one hand holding a hot dog and the other clutching a stained brown paper napkin. The metal bleacher he was sitting on was making his ass numb and the sun was relentless, especially because he had forgotten a hat. 

Steve had never felt more content. 

A warm shoulder pressed into his left side and he glanced over at the man beside him munching on his own hot dog. He smirked and reached out with his messy napkin to swipe at the ketchup caught on the bow of Bucky’s upper lip.

Bucky jerked his head back playfully, sticking out his tongue at Steve. “What are you my mother?”

“Feels like it sometimes, all your messes that I have to clean up.”

“You stealin’ my lines now Rogers, pretty sure I’ve been cleaning up your messes for the better part of a century.”

“You’re a heathen who likes ketchup on his hot dog.”

“Oh, them’s fightin’ words.”

Steve laughed and settled back on the bench, shoving the last of his hot dog into his mouth, cheeks puffing as he chewed on the much too big bite. He stretched out his arms across the back of the bench, sighing as Bucky leaned against him while polishing off his own hot dog. A bag of peanuts were in Bucky’s hand moments after he finished and he started cracking the shells between his legs.

Steve was hit with such a sense of nostalgia at the sight and sound that he had to close his eyes and breath for a second. How many times had they watched a baseball game just like this, Bucky snacking on nuts while Steve kept score beside him? He wasn’t keeping score today, because the game didn’t count for anything other than celebrating everyone being alive again. It was some strange All Star like game with baseball players from the current time going against players who had been dusted. Steve had been given two tickets to the game from one of the men in his therapy group, who couldn’t use them (citing a need to catch up with a long lost lover). It was only natural he brought Bucky along.

“I ever tell you how SHIELD was playing a game from ‘41 when I first woke up.” He spoke up, shading his eyes as he looked back out over the field.

“Seriously? What morons. How’d you know?” Bucky said as he tossed a couple peanuts into his mouth.

“It was that game we went to just after you got that promotion at the docks. Reiser hit an in-the-park grand slam against the Phillies off of Pearson.” It had been a hot day, not unlike this one. The crowd had been rapturous after that hit. He and Bucky had enjoyed a night of bar hopping and celebrating with complete strangers the Dodger’s win over the Phillies. 

Bucky laughed, eyes smiling up at Steve for a moment before he bent back over his task of cracking peanuts. “Oh yeah, I remember that game. You spilled your popcorn all over me when Reiser got that hit.” 

“I’m glad baseball is still around.”

“Me too.”

A sharp crack had them looking up as someone hit a home run. The crowd was cheering but Steve had lost track of the game ages ago. He was enjoying the atmosphere more than anything else. And the company. He let his arm slip around Bucky’s shoulders, fingers pressed to the stump of Bucky’s left arm. 

“Hey Steve,” Bucky spoke up, looking down as he cracked peanuts one handed. Steve opened his right hand in his lap, smiling as two halves of a peanut were dropped into his palm. Bucky sharing with him was another constant Steve was grateful to have back.

“Yeah Buck,” he said, tossing the peanut into his mouth and watching a rather nasty slider strike out a batter. 

“What took you so long, getting back?” Bucky inquired softly.

Steve looked off across the field, watching a long fly ball cross the grass to be caught in the glove of the center field right on the warning track. He could make some comment about the line at the concession stand being long during the 6th inning and Bucky would probably go along. They’d never been very good at talking about really important things. Well Steve never had, Bucky had always braver than him when it really counted. So he knew Bucky wasn’t asking about why it took so long to get their hot dogs.

“You mean when I was returning the stones?” He had to be sure they were talking about the same thing.

“You were off by half a second getting back, I thought Sam would have a conniption.”

“I seem to remember you being the most relieved I was back.”

The feeling of the hug Bucky had given him when he had stepped off the platform felt ingrained in Steve’s skin. The desperation in Bucky’s grip he wouldn’t forget anytime soon. His friend was quiet beside him now and Steve shook his head at his own flippant attitude. Bucky deserved the truth more than anyone.  
“I’ll admit I took a little detour. It was nice to not be hording the Pym Particles like the last time. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to indulge a little.”

Bucky’s shoulders curled up a little under Steve’s arm but he just hugged his friend tighter to his side, trying to reassure him. “I saw Tony got to have a moment with Howard in the past, and it seemed to bring him a lot of closure. I thought I might get some of my own.”

Bucky wasn’t looking at him, was continuing to watch the game and open peanut shells one handed, but Steve could tell he was hanging on his every word. Steve was just starting to realize how much he had worried his friend. “When I was going into the ice I promised Peggy a dance. I woke up 70 years too late but this whole time machine thing gave me a chance to make it up to her. She told me once, during one of her lucid days, that she dreamed we had our dance at the Stork Club. She had gone to the joint knowing I wouldn’t be there. But then I showed up, late of course, and we got our dance. She had the band play something real slow.”

“Why didn’t you stay?” Bucky whispered as the crowd cheered for a great diving catch by the third baseman to get a critical out. Steve heard the question though, would always heard Bucky’s voice over any other noise.

“Because the past is the past.”

“Even with a time machine.”

“Especially then.”

Steve looked down as something nudged against his hand and he grinned as Bucky deposited a whole handful of peanuts into his hand. The pile of shells between his feet revealed Bucky’s anxiety but Steve didn’t comment other than to say thanks as he snacked on the roasted nuts.

“I’m glad you got that Steve.” Bucky said as he finally looked at Steve, his eyes glistening at bit under the rim of his baseball cap. His smile was radiant though, and it tugged a smile onto Steve’s lips. “But I’m also glad to have you back.”

“Of course. I couldn’t leave my best guy.”

Bucky ducked his head and nudged his shoulder into Steve’s armpit, smile going shy and dopey. Steve hadn’t seen that face in a really long time and the sight of it fixed something he hadn’t known was broken in his heart.

Everyone around them started to stand up and Steve thought another home run had been hit until he heard the organ start to play the song. He grinned and jumped to his feet, dragging Bucky up beside him as “Take me out to the ball game” jingled over the speakers. They sang off key with everyone around them, laughing at the blur of words that happened when the song required a name of a team to root for, the crowd screaming out the name of all 30 teams of major league baseball. Bucky laughingly said “I can’t believe this song stuck. Where’s the part about Katie?”

They sat down at the end of the song with the crowd and Steve felt like he could lift a building his heart was so light. Instead he nudged Bucky, stealing a peanut and cracking it himself. He gave the inside to Bucky, tossing the shell away. “How about we catch a movie after the game. They’re replaying the Star Wars films down at the theater. It’s on my list.”

“Is that the one with the pointy eared people?”

“I think that’s Star Trek. Or Lord of the Rings. Or… well a lot of movies on my list.”

“Well as long as there’s popcorn and a coke I don’t care what we watch.”

Steve curled his arm back around Bucky’s shoulder and leaning his head back to catch the rays of the sun on his face. “Sounds about right to me pal.”

Over the speakers an old song began to play, one very familiar to Steve. If he closed his eyes and let his mind drift he could feel the ghost of Peggy in his arms as he remembered finally getting his dance with the right partner. She had been wearing the same perfume she had worn when she fired a gun at his SHIELD. Her hand had been so soft in his, petite and gentle as he swayed them to the croon of a saxophone. The whole thing had felt like a dream. A wonderful memory for Steve to hang on to.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) You can find anything online, like the original lyrics and history of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Also, the Dodgers weren't known as the Dodgers during the early '40s. Who knew?!
> 
> 2) I'm a big Stucky shipper but I wanted to keep this light and more in line with the movies. However, I can't even begin to describe how many new works I'm writing at the moment. Be still my Stucky obsessed heart.
> 
> 3) I love this fandom.
> 
> 4) It's been a while since I posted anything and just as long since I wrote and finished something. This popped out in about 3 hours after I let Endgame digest for a week. So this was unbetaed and a rush job. Be kind.
> 
> 5) Premise for this came from a great venting session I had with my mom. She is pissed at Steve's ending. She painted instead a picture of seeing Steve and Bucky at a baseball game or going on another double date. Hell, Steve dying was preferable to her over what we actually got for an end. Thank you mom for the inspiration.
> 
> 6) Apparently the writers and directors of Endgame don't agree on how Steve's ending actually works within the context of the movie's time travel hand wavyness... isn't that just a sign they should have gone in a different direction?
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
